MONTREAL — As Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp announced her resignation Monday, she expressed the hope her surprise departure would provide the “electroshock” necessary to resolve the province’s seemingly endless student strike.

That, however, would require the leaders of the student movement to behave like rational players acting in the best interests of their members. And really, why should they start now?

For 13 weeks, the leaders of the main student groups have dismissed every government concession as insufficient, stubbornly holding out for nothing less than total government surrender. They have encouraged the lawless behaviour of masked protesters who again Monday defied court orders and blocked their fellow students from entering class.

The only jolt the striking students are likely to feel from Ms. Beauchamp’s resignation is the thrill of having claimed their first head.

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What began as a protest against the Liberal government’s planned tuition hikes has taken on a life of its own. Nowhere was that more evident than at the Montreal courthouse Monday, where four people in their early 20s appeared on charges related to the rush-hour smoke-bomb attacks last week that paralyzed Montreal’s metro system.

It was a shameful act that disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Montrealers and caused economic losses that have been estimated in the millions. The four face charges including conspiracy, mischief and committing a terrorist hoax, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

But inside the courtroom, supporters greeted the four accused — François Vivier Gagnon, 22, Vanessa L’Écuyer, 22, Geneviève Vaillancourt, 25, and Roxanne Bélisle, 23 — like political prisoners, applauding them as they were led back into custody until a May 23 bail hearing. Outside, a rally organized by a radical student group, Force étudiante critique, assailed the media for having published police photos of the four suspects before their arrests.

Reuters

Protesters denounced the “informant media” and jostled with journalists trying to film the event. Marie-Louise Bussières, a retiree who unwittingly defied an edict from organizers not to talk to the media, was mid-interview when some protesters arrived to drown her out with screams and a noisemaker. “They are our future,” she had begun by saying of the students. “They are the ones who will build the future society.”

Should she prove correct, it will be a strange society indeed. Brian Myles, head of Quebec’s federation of professional journalists, was on hand to witness the demonstration and expressed his disgust on Twitter.

“The protesters who prevent the media from doing their jobs have a very poor idea of life in a democratic society,” he wrote.

It was not just journalists who were being impeded Monday. At three Montreal-area CEGEPs, students who had won court injunctions recognizing their right to return to class were blocked from entering their schools by protesters, many of whom wore masks. At Collège de Rosemont, where the administration wanted to open its doors in a last-ditch effort to save the semester, police tried unsuccessfully to clear an entrance for students seeking to go to class.

The Canadian Press

In the end, classes were not held at any of the schools, following a familiar pattern for students who have won court orders in recent weeks.

In a statement last week, the president of the Quebec branch of the Canadian Bar Association denounced the non-respect of the injunctions.

“Ignoring and defying such orders seriously attacks the principle of the primacy of law and undermines the democratic foundations at the very base of the rule of law,” Martin Sheehan said.

Premier Jean Charest has named Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne to replace Ms. Beauchamp, who after 15 years in politics also resigned as a member of the National Assembly.

Ms. Beauchamp referred to her resignation as “the ultimate compromise” she could offer. “I have lost confidence in the will of the student leaders to seek a solution, and to seek a true way out of the crisis,” she said. “Personally, as Minister of Education, I would never have succeeded in getting them to make a compromise.”

Her successor is unlikely to fare better.

Mr. Charest said the government remains “very determined” and considers the proposed tuition hikes “important for the future of Quebec.” Starting in September, fees would rise by $254 a year for seven years, which would still leave tuition below the Canadian average.

Ms. Beauchamp’s resignation should be the ultimate compromise — ultimate in the sense of final. It is bad enough that the masked thugs have been allowed to trample people’s rights this long, but to let them win would send a very dangerous message.

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